The Dressmaker

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Kate Winslet is in imperious, seductive top form in The Dressmaker, by the gifted Australian Jocelyn Moorhouse (Proof)—who thus ends an 18-year absence from directing. A magnificently cranky Judy Davis and a campy Hugo Weaving lead the spirited supporting cast, and Liam Hemsworth gets to play the droll heartthrob in this screwball melodrama about a stylish dame's defiant return to the Outback outpost from which she was banished years earlier following a mysterious (and fatal) childhood incident.

Queen of Katwe

Uplifting family entertainment doesn't come any more vibrant—visually, musically, emotionally—than Queen of Katwe, helmed with characteristic panache by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake) and based on the true story of a girl (played by charismatic newcomer Madina Nalwanga) who rose from a slum in Kampala, Uganda, to become an internationally ranked chess master. David Oyelowo (as her coach) and Lupita Nyong'o (as her mom) lend major-league gravitas to an irresistible story of most improbable triumph.

Keeping Up With the Joneses

Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot play a ludicrously suave mystery couple in Greg Mottola's Keeping Up With the Joneses, a giddy, fizzy spoof on the kind of spy caper in which ordinary folk get swept up in impenetrable global intrigue. Cue Isla Fisher and Zach Galifianakis as parents who, having just shipped their young tykes off for some sleepaway summer fun, are raring to reignite their relationship and get to know their new neighbors. Well, they have a head-spinning time trying.